Senior rabbis from the Lithuanian ultra-Orthodox community released a "Torah opinion and protest" against the IDF conversion track, while expressing support for marriage registrars who do not recognize former soldiers as Jews.

While the Chief Rabbinate still needs to make a more unequivocal statement supporting conversion in the IDF, it is clear that the issue of IDF conversions is now an ideological war between the moderates, who stand behind the soldiers who have joined our ranks fully, and the isolationist ultra-Orthodox, who don’t serve and don’t care about those who have.

Yated Ne'eman's Tuesday editorial was more specific, and spoke out against the “massive industry of fake conversions conducted by the army.”

Tuesday’s letter also calls on marriage registrars to “scrutinize and examine” every conversion certificate produced, to determine whether the convert indeed underwent the process according to Halacha.

Rabbi Riskin is the founder and chancellor of Ohr Torah Stone Colleges and Graduate Programs and chief rabbi of Efrat.

Are we a nationality or a religion? The truth is we are both together and each separately.

...For Russian citizens of Israel whose fathers were Jewish and who serve in the IDF, there are even further leniencies, and it is certainly in our national interest to convert these citizens.

Yes, the Rotem law would not accept Conservative or Reform conversions in Israel; but it would open conversions to municipal rabbis who are not haredi (ultra-Orthodox). I truly believe it deserves universal support.

Rabbi Hammer is the head of the Rabbinical Court of the Masorti Movement and the author of several books, the most recent being Entering Torah.

[T]he alienation of Israelis from the religious component of Judaism – not only observance but even understanding and knowledge – is disastrous.

Some find Judaism quaint but irrelevant. But among all too many Israelis there is an aversion to religion, sometimes bordering on intense dislike. Yet, like it or not, Judaism throughout its history has been based on religious tradition. Take it away, and the heart of our being has been removed.

Attorney Yizhar Hess is the Director-General of the Masorati Movement in Israel

One poll after another in recent years show that the Israeli public has changed; that it has become more open in terms of its Jewish identity to a much greater extent than some people want us to know, that it does not fear different models of Jewish practice, and that it is happy to experience them.

...This welcome process, on all fronts, must continue. It is a harbinger of a better Israel; a more Jewish and more democratic Israel. Pluralism instead of fundamentalism. This trend had not yet been manifested politically, yet this too shall happen.

Prime MinisterBenjamin Netanyahuordered Justice Minister Yaakov Ne'eman to redraft his proposed amendmentto the Citizenship Act so that the loyalty oath suggested in it will apply to Jews seeking Israeli citizenship under Law of Return guidelines, as well.

Prof. Ruth Gavison is a law professor, a Senior Fellow Emeritus at the Israel Democracy Institute and founder of the Metzilah Center for Zionist, Jewish, Liberal and Humanist Thought.

The controversy sparked over the government's recent decision to demand all aspiring Israeli citizens to pledge their allegiance not only to Israel, but to a "Jewish and democratic" one, provides us with a unique opportunity to rectify one of the most common mistakes in such debates – the inability to differentiate between statements and symbols and pivotal legal and political arrangements.

Hebrew University law professor Ruth Gavison, an outspoken supporter of characterizing Israel as a Jewish and democratic state, told The Jerusalem Post in an exclusive interview Wednesday that she was opposed to the loyalty oath bill approved in the cabinet earlier this week.

[I]t is nonetheless important to note that Jews in the United States feel the discussion on the issue of the Jewish state is an existential matter that pertains to them directly - just as issues of Israeli state and religion, and Law of Return, are crucial to them.

At play here is not a change in position, but rather the yearnings of hearts in the United States, which are sometimes overlooked by those Jews who reside in Israel.

"Our deep conviction that Israel is and must remain both Jewish and democratic is precisely what compels us to oppose this oxymoronic law," CCAR stated.

"For in requiring non-Jewish citizens to pledge loyalty to Israel as a Jewish and democratic state, this legislation greatly diminishes Israel's Jewish character and compromises its democratic commitment."

In its statement, however, the CCAR mischaracterized the amendment, claiming that it “requires all non-Jewish persons to swear allegiance to Israel as a Jewish and democratic state in order to remain or become citizens of the State of Israel.”

In fact, the legislation is aimed solely at those seeking citizenship who are not eligible for it under the Law of Return. No pledge would be demanded of natural-born citizens.

The volunteer coordinator for a movement campaigning against Jerusalem bus lines instituting separation between men and women has received dozens of harassing phone calls over the past few days, Ynet reported Thursday

Tali Feldman, 28-year old activist with Elah, an international feminist student body fighting against sexual harassment at the university and other feminist causes, often rides the segregated buses, and refuses to sit in the back.

“It’s really frightening,” she says of the experience. “All these men screaming at me and staring at me — there have been times when I’ve been scared for my life. One time there was so much screaming that the bus driver pulled over and refused to drive.”

While a majority of Israelis already accept Reform Rabbis, the government is still unwilling to recognize our legitimacy.

They want to designate funds for cultural, rather than religious, activities. Therefore the State has appointed the Ministry of Culture and Sport, rather than the Ministry of Religious Services, as the partner to find a solution.

A 14-year old boy has petitioned the High Court of Justice against Chief Rabbi Shlomo Amar with a demand to obligate the Chief Rabbinate to check his ordination exam. If the court rules in his favor, the boy will be in line to become the world's youngest rabbi.

...A rabbinate official told Ynet that any divergence from the guidelines would be a slippery slope that could eventually lead to applications by women and [Reform Jews].

In lamenting the absence of religious women in positions of public leadership in Israel, Pinchasi asked, “Why don’t we have a Keren Neubach, Shelly Yachimovitch, or Ilana Dayan?

Why isn’t there a religious woman with a clear, polished, elaborate and committed ideological voice at the center of the public discourse? I mean the voice of a woman who does not deny her femininity but also does not play with it, and for whom it is not obsequious. The type who is both a mother and professional and has a critical public voice that you may not agree with but you cannot help but respect.”

Starting on Wednesday, Jewish leaders and scholars from Israel and around the world will convene for a three-day conference in Jerusalem to debate that question and others affecting ties between Israel and the Diaspora.

The golden age of Israel Bonds as the country's financial savior ended at the start of the 1990s, when the state realized it could also raise money selling bonds on the international markets.

Since then there have been voices, like Yossi Beilin's, calling for the closing of the organization. Apart from the large sum the government pays Israel Bonds every year to cover administrative costs and salaries, the interest paid by the government of Israel is higher than the usual market rate for a U.S. government bond.

A 40-year-old Jewish woman from Mexico is currently making her way to Israel via a yacht in what is her very own private aliyah journey. Galia Moss, who departed from Veracruz on Tuesday, is expected to spend 65 days sailing through the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea and will eventually dock in the Herzliya Marina.

The Ami conversion ulpan at Or Etzion is launching a new initiative to help and personalize the arduous journey into Judaism, by seeking language speakers in the periphery to be part of the teaching staff of their program aimed at olim.

VATICAN CITY – Rabbi David Rosen delivered a historic speech on Wednesday to Pope Benedict XVI as over 250 bishops gathered in the Vatican’s Synod Hall for the Special Assembly on the Middle East On Thursday, Sunni and Shi’ite representatives spoke.

Rosen, adviser to Israel’s Chief Rabbinate, and the American Jewish Committee’s international director for interfaith affairs, was chosen as world Jewry’s sole representative.

Haredi defiance of Education MinisterGideon Sa’ar’sdeclared crackdown on their state-funded schools remained unanswered on Monday, after the spiritual leadership of the Ashkenazi haredim, fearful that Sa’ar would tighten supervision of core curriculum instruction, convened Sunday night to confront what they consider external meddling in a crucial internal matter.

“The leaders of the Haredi public are dooming students of the exempted institutions to a life of ignorance, poverty and total separation from the general Israeli pubic, all under the fake cover of generations of Jewish tradition,” said Rabbi Gilad Kariv, head of the Reform Movement in Israel.

The writer is the vice president of research and information at Hiddush-For Religious Freedom and Equality.

Housing Minister Ariel Atias is under heavy pressure to provide cheap housing at any cost. But we must not allow the construction of Haredi cities that will lock their residents out of the world of employment.

The future of the Israeli economy depends on having Haredim go out to work, and we must not bury this future in poverty traps in the Galilee and the Negev.

MK Moshe Gafni (United Torah Judaism), chairman of the Knesset Finance Committee, is threatening a coalition crisis unless the government acts quickly to lower housing prices, especially for the sake of young couples.

Gafni and his party are demanding aid for young couples buying their first homes in the periphery.

Minister Meridor, a father of four, continued his critique of the ultra-Orthodox sector by saying the State must insist upon requiring basic subjects to be taught at haredi schools.

When asked how the issue was relevant to social gaps and poverty he responded, "It is definitely relevant. One of the reasons for poverty is the fact that people don't receive education and schooling that pertain to the modern world."

Bank of Israel Governor Prof. Stanley Fischer noted the importance of participating in the workforce, and cited the rising numbers of haredim in higher education institutions as an encouraging factor, indicative of the growing trend of their participation in the economy.

“But this is just a beginning. The numbers are still small,” he said. “I know of the problems in integrating haredim into the workforce, but they can be solved. I hope the haredi community itself will realize [the importance of joining the workforce], and support all measures to encourage that.”

On Wednesday, October 13, 2010, IDI hosted a conference entitled "The Haredi Community in a Changing Society: Education, Employment, and Military Service."

This conference was conducted as part of the activities of IDI's research program on Israel as a Nation State, headed by IDI Senior Fellow Prof. Anita Shapira, laureate of the 2008 Israel Prize for Jewish History.

Education Minister Gideon Sa'ar said yesterday he has reached an understanding with Shas spiritual leader Rabbi Ovadia Yosef that students in the Shas educational network would resume taking the standardized tests given to fifth- through eighth-graders.

Sa'ar said the exams, which test Hebrew or Arabic, English, math, and science and technology, would be adapted for the Shas schools, for example, to exclude images of women.

Rabbi Avraham Wasserman teaches in a hesder yeshiva (where religious studies are combined with army service ) in Ramat Gan and is the leader of the Gvurat Mordechai Orthodox congregation in Givatayim.

About 10 days ago an article he wrote entitled "A little stupidity: On the search for a career and too much education" was published in the "Olam Katan" leaflet distributed in religious Zionist synagogues.

The ultra-Orthodox community in Jerusalem’s Mea Shearim district dismantled a street barrier separating men and women after the High Court of Justice ruled last week that the practice was unacceptable.

The High Court was responding to a petition by NIF grantee Yerushalmim, which had insisted that any division of public space by gender in Israel is illegal.

A senior psychiatrist with the Health Ministry is suspected of authorizing false claims made by yeshiva students, which allowed them to cheat the National Insurance Institute out of millions, Ynet has learned.

It was exactly two years ago that Yedioth Ahronoth's David Regev published a story about the appointment of Rabbi Sharon Shalom, a 37-year old Ethiopian who married an Ashkenazi Israeli and fathered four, to the position of rabbi of Kdoshei Yisrael Synagogue in Kiryat Gat.

His appointment as an Ethiopian rabbi serving a congregation of Holocaust survivors was unprecedented, yet there is only one way to describe what Rabbi Shalom has managed to accomplish in the past two years – a revolution.

The Chief Rabbinate on Thursday removed its objection to the establishment of a national authority operating kosher supervisors, instead of the supervisors currently employed by the local rabbinates.

A bill on the matter is slated to be brought before the Ministerial Committee at the beginning of the winter session, and is meant to prevent financial irregularities, nepotism and inadequate supervision – as revealed by a State Comptroller Report.

At a debate discussing the involvement of rabbis in public struggles, on Wednesday, Rabbi Levanon stated that the democratic system of governance and decision making "distorts reality" because it creates a false compromising middle ground, which is why rabbis are committed to the Torah - the "absolute truth" – and are not committed to democracy.

Professor Stanley Fischer has recently received a series of important honors abroad, culminating with his being named the best central bank governor in the world for 2010 by an important publication.

However, he appears to have slipped up Saturday when he gave a speech at the International Monetary Fund convention in Washington, DC, despite the Jewish Sabbath – and he is getting flak over it in Israel.

Rabbi Avraham Yosef, chief rabbi of the city of Holon, and son of Shas spiritual leader Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, stated that any newly religious person must accept Sephardic religious edicts, even if the person is of Ashkenazi descent.

The office of Shas chairman and Interior Minister Eli Yishai issued a statement on Sunday night that said Yishai had been instructed by Shas spiritual leader Rabbi Ovadia Yosef to "strongly oppose any form of a settlement freeze extension."

In order to beat the Ashkenazim at their own game, Shas adopted the fiercely ideological brand of Ashkenazi politics. In the process, the character of Sephardi Judaism metamorphosed from, one might say, tradition to Orthodoxy.

One of the last great inheritors of that humane tradition, Rav Ovadia had set out to restore it but ended by remaking it through an imposed, alien uniformity.

He also amassed more political power than any rabbi in post-talmudic history; but will he be remembered for that, rather than for his truly awesome learning and teaching?

The sole purpose of non-Jews is to serve Jews, according to Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, the head of Shas’s Council of Torah Sages and a senior Sephardi adjudicator.

“Goyim were born only to serve us. Without that, they have no place in the world – only to serve the People of Israel,” he said in his weekly Saturday night sermon on the laws regarding the actions non-Jews are permitted to perform on Shabbat.

The hareidi religious community has been visiting the Temple Mount in larger numbers than ever, according to Temple Mount activist Yehuda Glick.

On the recent Simchat Torah holiday, 30 hareidi religious Jews, wearing their traditional fur hats (“shtreimels”) marched around the holy site instead of the traditional dancing in synagogue on the holiday, Rabbi Glick added. “Every day, yeshiva students from the Mir and Hevron yeshiva come